A STEETON firm's national charity partnership with Marie Curie has been spotlighted at a major convention.

Acorn Stairlifts' support of the cancer care organisation was lauded as a 'beacon for best practice' at the three-day gathering, the biggest of its kind in Europe.

The event – at the Barbican Centre in London – was organised by the Institute of Fundraising, which supports professional fundraisers.

Among the speakers was Jo Hancock, head of account management for Marie Curie, who spoke about the benefits of corporate support through gifts in kind – when firms back a good cause by donating goods or services rather than money.

She highlighted the charity's pioneering partnership with Acorn, which has pledged to donate and install up to 60 stairlifts a year in the homes of patients receiving care from Marie Curie.

"We know that given the choice most people would want to spend their last few days at home – surrounded by the people they love – and Marie Curie's mission is to help make this happen," she said.

"By providing free stairlifts to our patients, Acorn is directly helping us to achieve our mission, allowing families to make the most of their last precious moments together and enabling us to care for more people by freeing up space in one of our nine hospices across the UK.

"It is also important that charities find ways of making partnerships sustainable by identifying mutual benefits and we are pleased to be able to help add value to the Acorn brand."

Under the initiative, the first patients have already received their stairlifts and more are being installed every month.

In a linked arrangement, Acorn has also donated a specially-adapted Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) to the Marie Curie hospice for the West Midlands.

The £10,000 vehicle – which has been loaned free for an initial two-year-period, with Acorn covering all insurance, tax and servicing costs – enables wheelchair-dependent patients to access day services at the hospice.

Dave Belmont, Acorn Stairlifts' company secretary, said: "Marie Curie is a great charity doing a fantastic job and we're delighted to be working with it in this innovative partnership.

"We share the same aim of improving people's lives, so it's good that we can work together to help achieve that for Marie Curie patients throughout the UK."

Acorn has grown massively since its launch in 1992.

It now manufactures more than 60,000 stairlifts a year at its factories in Steeton and Shipley and at a sister company in Haddington, near Edinburgh.

The products are exported to 84 countries.

Last month it announced record results, with turnover of £149.2 million and post-tax profits of £13.4 million in the past year.

International sales rose by almost £12.8 million on the previous 12 months.

The firm is the market leader for stairlifts in the USA – where sales now outstrip the UK home market – and it is continuing to expand in Europe, with the recent opening of a new office in France.